Dark Heart
by Cliffhanger247
Summary: What if instead of Eren being in the dark about his shifting abilities, he knew all along? What would change if he wasn't actually on humanity's side? This AU explores those ideas with a rather OP Eren with a much darker past and a totally different chain of events that unfold. Rated M for language, violence, sexual themes, and references of torture. (Title is a work in progess)


**I recently watched Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyogin again (like a week ago) and I've had all kinds of ideas for AoT/SnK fanfics since I rewatched it. I really need to get caught up on the manga too and plan on reading it before school starts up. But anyway, this is one of the MANY ideas I've thought up, there's a few more but I'm not sure if I'm going to write them into fanfics. I'm not giving up any of my other Tokyo Ghoul fanfics though, so don't worry about them, I'm working on them too.**

' _Thoughts'_

Text

"Conversation

 **Disclaimer: I don't know why I need to write this, I think it's obvious I don't own Shingeki no Kyogin/Attack on Titan.**

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 **Summary: What if instead of Eren being in the dark about his shifting abilities, he knew all along? What would change if he wasn't actually on humanity's side? This AU explores those ideas with a rather OP Eren with a much darker past and a totally different chain of events that unfold.**

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The sun above beat down on the one hundred or so cadets that had enlisted in the military. Among those cadets stood Annie Leonhart, a short, platinum blonde hair and crystal blue eyes that appeared to have a sullen vibe. She stood at attention as well as the many other cadets around her as their instructor, Commander Keith Shadis bellowed and belittled them. Shadis was a tall and rather intimidating man, with a bald head and tanned skin. The dark rings around his eyes made him even more imposing to the young cadets. Fortunately for her, he passed by Annie without saying a word to her, which she took as a sign that she was on par with his expectations.

"Hey you!" he called out a blond boy with a bowl cut.

"Sir!" the cadet replied.

Shadis eyed the blond boy with a death glare, "Who the hell are you?!"

"Armin Arlert, from Shiganshina District!" Annie heard the boy, Armin reply.

"I see," muttered Shadis. "That's a ridiculous name! Did your parents give it to you?!" his voice raised back to its normal octave.

"My grandfather did sir!" the Arlert boy replied.

Annie rolled her eyes and turned away from Shadis bullying the other cadets. The moment she looked away she noticed another boy standing separate from the others. His overall appearance appeared to be normal, somewhat tan skin with brown hair but his eyes were something else, unlike any she had ever seen before yet they seemed so familiar. The intensity at which the teal-green eyes seemed to glow with anger was able to draw her in. He wore the same uniform as the other cadets but Annie noticed that the boy had shackles around his wrists and ankles, preventing him from saluting or even moving his hands much higher than his lower abdomen. She didn't understand it but was forced to break out of her thoughts when she heard Shadis's voice raised even higher than before. Turning from the green eyed boy to look at whoever the intimidating man's newest victim was.

The commander was engaged in a conversation with a girl who was eating a potato. Annie wanted to raise an eyebrow to express her confuse of the odd girl but decided against it and turned back to attention. Yet for whatever reason, she kept taking peeks at the green eyed boy who stood apart from everyone else.

After Shadis had finished with Potato Girl he stormed across the field and stood next to the green eyed boy that Annie couldn't look away from. The instructor bellowed out in a very loud and commanding voice, "No one, I repeat NO ONE is to engage Eren Yeager until he has been given clearance to speak! Is that understood?!" Shadis's order was echoed by a series of "Yes sir"s, to which the man nodded satisfied by the response. He then turned to speak to the green eyed boy in a very quiet tone.

Annie was surprised that the Commander could speak that quietly but what most peeked her interest was the fact that the boy, Eren Yeager apparently, wasn't allowed to have any contact with the other cadets unless he had "clearance", whatever that meant. Shadis dismissed the cadets and Annie left to the mess hall to eat dinner but noticed that Eren was being led by two soldiers with a unicorn insignia on their jackets. Obviously, the boy could feel her eyes on the side of his face and he turned to face her, flashing a small smile which caught her off guard and she frozen in her stride. He immediately received a harsh shove forward which he hissed in reply but continued to walk, the sound of the chains rattling resonated in Annie's ear as he walked off.

"Annie," a familiar voice called her from behind, she looked over her shoulder to see two large boys walking towards her.

Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover had been assigned to this mission with her and she had been forced to put up with them for two years since the fall of Shiganshina. It was Reiner that had called her name, he was a large, burly boy with short blond hair and golden eyes. While Bertholt was rather tall, taller than Reiner, but he was slimmer. Dark brown hair with green eyes, but his eyes could not even begin to match the teal-green eyes of the Eren Yeager boy.

"He seems really familiar, doesn't he?" Reiner asked, nodding towards Eren as he was led to the mess hall. Annie simply hummed a reply, despite her desire to learn more about the subject of Eren Yeager she was actually pretty hungry.

The three of them went to the mess hall, along with the other cadets and Annie groaned inaudibly when she realized how loud it was. Reiner and Bertholdt went off to a table that had other cadets sitting at it after getting their food but Annie went and sat an unoccupied table by herself. But she soon realized why the table was unpopulated once Eren Yeager was forced to sit at the other end, far from Annie but still at the same table.

She noticed that his right hand was removed from the shackles but his left hand was still chained up. Annie found herself looking over his features, trying to mentally discover more about him. Some food was laid out roughly in front of him, causing the drink on the cup to splash and the bread to roll off the tray and onto the table. Then utensils, in order to eat, were dropped to the table rather loudly, they clattered against the tabletop but Eren made no move for them even after they stopped moving.

"You can eat now, monster." one of the soldiers escorting him barked, only then did Eren reach for his bread.

Annie watched him with some form of odd curiosity as he lifted the crisp bread to his lips. Watching this boy eat was starting to feel weird to her and yet, Annie couldn't pull herself away. He had captured her interest and she wanted nothing more than to discover everything about him. Suddenly he looked up from his meal, his teal-green eyes meeting with her clear, blue orbs. He flashed the same kind smile he had earlier but his soldier escort must have noticed the upturned corners of his lips because the same one who called him a monster moments ago sent a punch to Eren's temple.

"Scum like you aren't allowed to smile, you piece of trash!" Annie's eyes widened at the sight of brutality simply because he had smiled. Her attention was caught when the other soldier called out to her.

"Hey, what's your name cadet?" he barked with urgency.

Annie hesitantly rose to her feet and gave them a salute, "Annie Leonhart, sir." she cast a quick, pitied glance down at Eren and noticed that he was fine, the bruise that should have been there seemed to fade away in an instant.

"Well, Cadet Leonhart," the first soldier started up, patting Eren's head none too lightly. "I suggest you leave this table. Young girls like you shouldn't be around monsters like him." he smacked the bread that Eren was trying to bring to his lips, away. "That's an order, kid. Move to another table."

Annie nodded, lowered her salute then took her tray and left to find another table. As she walked away, she could hear other cadets speaking about what had just occurred. Begrudgingly, Annie slumped into the seat by Reiner and began to eat in silence.

"That was risky Ann," Bertholdt whispered to her from over Reiner's shoulder. "We shouldn't be involving ourselves with that stuff, it'll only draw unwanted attention to us," he warned her.

She hummed in response again, her eyes trained on Eren Yeager as he finished his meal. The second after he placed his spoon down the soldiers grabbed him and hoisted him from his chair and clasped the cuff back on his right hand. Reiner seemed to also be watching because she could see him clench his fists. It made sense to be angry about watching the sight, no one knew what this Eren kid had done wrong and yet he was being treated as a criminal right in front of them.

For people who came from outside of the walls, this was a shock to Annie and Reiner. Bertholdt also appeared to be shaken by the treatment of Yeager but he didn't express as much anger as Reiner was. Her eyes, as well as almost everyone's in the mess hall, followed the two soldiers as they escorted Eren Yeager from the dining area and into the dark night, no doubt to wherever he was being held.

"Do you think he's some kinda criminal?" piped up a female's voice from across the mess hall.

"There's no doubt in my mind he is," replied a pompous sounding male which Annie couldn't pinpoint. "I mean they've got him chained up and he isn't allowed to talk to the rest of us unless Shadis gives him permission. He's definitely some kind of criminal."

Reiner turned to Annie, "Did you noticed anything about him that made him seem like a criminal?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Annie shook her head, "I'm not sure, his smile was far too kind to make him a criminal but his eyes…" she trailed off when she realized there was another girl listening to their conversation.

The dark haired girl obviously didn't realize that Annie had stopped talking because of her and sat there, leaning in with wide eyes waiting for the blonde to finish. After a few moments of silence, the girl realized what was going on and she exclaimed embarrassed and leaned back.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm Mina, Mina Carolina." she said with a bubbly voice and flashed a cheerful smile and Annie groaned to herself. 'If all the girls are going to be like this I'm just going to end this now.'

"So, what do you think he is?" Mina asked excitedly, making Annie cringe internally.

Before either Annie or Reiner could reply a rather high pitched voice called out stuttering slightly. "It… it doesn't mat… matter is he's a criminal or n… not! The way th… those soldiers were tre… treating him was wr… wrong."

This sudden outburst made Annie, Reiner, and the dark haired Mina turn to see the blonde, bowl cut boy Shadis had called out from earlier. Annie noticed how… for a lack of a better word, wimpy he looked. He was obviously nervous or scared of announcing his opinion in front of everyone but he stood his ground nonetheless and that was enough to earn many people's respect. It was eerily silent for awhile before one boy erupted into laughter.

"Ah hahaha!" he pounded on the table. "You honestly think a criminal shouldn't be treated like that?! Ah hahaha! That's called justice and since there's no doubt he's a criminal, he deserves it." the blond boy frowned that the other boy's words and climbed off the table, believing that no one was going to side with him.

Reiner stood suddenly, belting out, "I agree! The way those men just hit that kid and for what?! He didn't do anything but try to eat his food and that guy straight up socked the guy in his face, what kind of justice is that?!" it was obvious he was calling out the boy who laughed earlier. "If that's the kind of justice you want others to receive and if you okay with witnessing it then you'll have no problems taking it," Annie noticed the dark glint in Reiner's eyes and how ominous his voice had become but she didn't stop him. "Am I right?" the other boy gulped and Annie could hear it since he was only a table away. "That's what I thought. You say the way he looked? He was completely harmless and they-"

"Are you done?" a commanding voice called out, causing Reiner and everyone else to turn around. Their eyes met the frightening eyes of Keith Shadis. "Cadets, it's almost curfew! Finish up here and get to your sleeping quarters! Dawdlers will be punished with kitchen duty!" with that he left without saying a word to Reiner for his outburst.

Annie quickly finished her meal and headed to the girls' barracks for the night. She noticed that her trunk of clothes was placed on a top bunk and she silently thanked whoever was in charge of assigning beds to cadets. She pulled the trunk from the bed and climbed into her bed, immediately noticing how uncomfortable it was. She groaned audibly as the other girls came in to find wherever they had been assigned to sleep. Annie paid them no heed, her mind was abuzz with only thoughts of the curious boy, Eren Yeager and what events got him into this situation.

"What'd Commander Shadis say that boy's name was?" Annie heard one girl ask.

Another replied, "I think the instructor said his name was Yeager."

"Yeah, that's what it was!" exclaimed the third girl.

"So, do you think he's a criminal?" the first girl asked.

"What does it matter if he is a criminal or not? He's just another cadet that you should be trying be best in the final grade." A new voice spoke up, Annie noticed how her voice sounded so apathetic and bored. It made Annie turn her attention from the ceiling above to the girl who had spoken. She was a Eurasian girl with raven black hair and dark eyes as well. "In the end, we're all competing for those top ten spots, including him."

Annie nodded even though no one was looking at her, "She's right. Now we should all get some sleep, tomorrow's the first day of training." the blonde offered to the others who all looked at her with confused expressions. "The first day will be purposely tough in order to weed out those who can't handle the training." and with that, Annie pulled the blankets over her body and tried to get comfortable on the stiff mattress and desperately tried to get some sleep.


End file.
